Dr. Nae
Shernā Ann Phillips, PhD (affectionately known as "Dr. Nae") is an Atlanta-based griot girl whose work is deeply rooted in her Baltimore upbringing. A multidisciplinary storyteller, Dr. Nae writes, directs, and produces for both stage and screen, with a creative lens focused on the intersection of race, gender, and activism—particularly the erasure and marginalization of Black women.
Whether through performance, poetry, or playwriting, she views storytelling as a collective tapestry—one that honors the complex intersections of identity, struggle, and joy that shape us all.
As a screenwriter, her first feature-length script placed in the top 15% of the 2017 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting. Nicholl readers praised the piece as “one of the most enjoyable family dramedy road trips I’ve ever been on,” noting that “the dialogue is a real delight: salty, naturalistic, and often hilariously funny, in a dry way.”
As a playwright, Dr. Nae has written, directed, and produced several full-length stage works, including The Cosby Satires and Double X: A Choreopoem for Womxn of All Flavors (formerly The XX Chromosome Project, cited in the Wikipedia entry for “choreopoem” under her maiden name, S. Ann Johnson).
A 2022 Commercial Theatre Producer 101 fellow, she currently serves on the board of Baltimore’s Strand Theater Company—the city’s only brick & mortar theater committed exclusively to uplifting women’s voices on stage.
Dr. Nae holds a Ph.D. in English from Morgan State University, a master’s degree in professional writing from Towson University, and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Penn State University. After four years serving as Senior Vice President of Marketing & Communications at Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta, she is excited to begin her tenure-track journey as an Assistant Professor of English at Clayton State University in Fall 2025.
The Arts & Social Justice Fellowship at Emory marks a meaningful opportunity for Dr. Nae to deepen her impact both in the classroom and within Atlanta’s broader arts community. Through this program, she looks forward to further exploring how storytelling can serve as a powerful bridge between theory and action.